Faith: A New Beginning
by Sk8erGrl
Summary: Boston was supposed to be Faith’s getaway. In one night that all changed. Join Faith in the first installment of an all-new series
1. Credits

****

Faith

The Series

EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING

__

Starring

Eliza Dushku _as Faith_

Samaire Armstrong _as Aly_

Michelle Trachtenberg _as Dawn_

Nicholas Brendon _as Xander_

Chad Michael Murray _as Seth_

And

Seth Green _as Oz_

Guest Starring: 

Greg Gunberg _as Barry Winters_

Shannon Elizabeth _as Desiree_

Sarah Carter _as Summer_

Adam Brody _as Chris_

John Shea _as Korl_


	2. Chapter 1

****

Faith

A New Beginning

Author: Sk8erGrl

****

Summary: Boston was supposed to be Faith's getaway. In one night that all changed. Join Faith in the first installment of an all-new series. 

****

Spoilers: Spoilers for both 'Chosen' and the Angel series finale 'Home'.

****

A/N: I posted a sneak preview for this story a while back and here is the first chapter of the first story. I hope you like it and stay tuned because the next action-packed chapter is coming soon. Please review. 

****

Chapter One.

Faith was used to taking care of herself. She had been doing it all her life and after becoming a Slayer it was more important than ever before, some Vampire or demon was constantly threatening her life. Truthfully, it exhilarated Faith. The fight and the rush of the kill, Faith lived for it. It was all she had. 

In prison Faith had felt trapped. She could've broken out at any time but Faith knew what she had done had been wrong and that she had to pay the consequences for murdering Finch. Angel had helped her realize that. Faith had killed a man. Innocent or not he had been a human. Faith had to work hard at redemption. It was comforting knowing she was not the only one, maybe that was why she and Angel had a good friendship. They were both striving for the same thing. 

After the big battle in Sunnydale, Faith didn't return to prison as everyone expected her to. She was free now thanks to Angel. With the new high power and connections that he had acquired when taking over the Los Angeles Wolfram and Hart office Angel had arranged it so that the world thought Faith had died in the mysterious demise of Sunnydale. According to the two century year old Vampire, Faith had paid her penance behind bars. The world needed her now. 

That was how she ended up back in Boston. Giles and Buffy had assigned Faith to take over the Boston area. The city held many painful memories for Faith, but it had once been home and she knew it well. So, with her new life set out for her Faith packed up what little belongings she had acquired and moved up to Boston. She lived in a seedy area of the city, her apartment a mess and Faith was barely able to make rent each month. She didn't mind though. Compared to the accommodations she'd had to live with for the past few years, the apartment was perfect. She had no cellmates, no giggly potential Slayers and no one to bother her. 

Acold wind rushed through the dark Boston cemetery, sending Faith's long brown hair askew as she strolled between the tombstones and crypts. The only light that was provided was from the dim green lanterns outside each crypt scattered across the city's main cemetery. The rogue slayer held her head high, confident that she could take anything that came her way. Her pretty brown eyes scanned the cemetery searching for any movement whatsoever. A stake was held tightly in her hands and tucked safely under her black jean jacket was another stake and a knife. Faith was prepared. Nothing could take her down. Nothing could beat her. 

From the corner of her eye Faith caught sight of a flurry of movement. Without blinking, Faith poised herself for battle. Slowly and silently Faith crept in the direction of the movement. The hand than held her stake was behind her back, hoping for the element of surprise if the movement had been a Vampire searching for prey. 

Kneeling at a newly dug grave was a young girl with long, straight blonde hair dressed in jeans and a jacket. In front of the girl lay a bouquet of fresh daisies. Faith kept her distance from the girl, watching carefully for anything suspicious. The last thing Faith needed was another murder charge.

The girl looked harmless enough to Faith, with innocence shining through her blue eyes. Faith knew well enough that innocence could be faked, or misconceived. She had seen Dawn Summers' innocent blue eyes and the young girl was not innocent, not by a long shot. Dawn had seen too much to be innocent any longer. Faith wondered if she had ever had the innocence Dawn and this strange girl had. But Faith knew, innocence was weakness. 

An ear-piercing scream resounded in Faith's ear, catching Faith's attention. She pinned her feet in the ground and searched for the screamer. It was the blonde girl Faith had been watching. Apparently whoever she had been visiting had just risen from the grave, much more alive than she had been two seconds earlier. 

Faith jumped into action. The new vampire resembled the blonde girl who it was now trying to unsuccessfully kill. Faith determined that the two girls had once been sisters but that didn't faze Faith though. Now, one of them was a Vampire and it was Faith's duty as a Slayer to slay the Vampires that crossed her path. Faith grabbed the blonde Vampire's hair and yanked on it hard. The Vampire stumbled back a few feet, forgetting the girl she had been trying to kill, and hissed angrily at Faith before trying to claw at the Slayer's face. One of the Vampire's long, manicured, nails dug into Faith's cheek tearing out a strip of skin. Faith cursed as blood begun to drip down her cheek. She'd just about had enough of this Vamp. Quickly Faith kicked the Vampire sharply in the gut and followed through with a back kick. 

As the Vampire fell back against a tombstone Faith quickly staked her. There was one less Vampire to worry about in the world and Faith's job there was done. Now, she had to move on and find the next Vampire to get rid of. A slayer's job was never truly done, unless she died. 

Instead of leaving and going on to her next patrol zone Faith stopped and looked toward the girl who had just watched her sister rise from the grave and get killed again. There was something about her that held Faith back. An instinct maybe. Hesitantly Faith approached the girl. "You okay kid?" Faith asked awkwardly, offering her hand to help the girl up. 

"What do you think?" the girl wondered bitterly, "I was just nearly killed by my dead sister who rose from the grave all evil and was murdered for the second time in two nights." 

"I was just doing my job," Faith informed the girl. 

"What's your job? Killing people?" the blonde inquired, "Cause I know what I just saw."

"She was already dead," Faith pointed out, "She was a Vampire and I had to slay her. That's what I am, a Vampire Slayer." 

"Vampire's don't exist," the blonde told Faith, "They're myths." 

"Tell that to them!" Faith sighed, "They sure don't seem to realize that. Them Vampires are as real as you and me." 

"Yeah and my mom's a somber and loving person," the blonde scoffed, the innocence completely gone from her eyes. Faith felt a tinge of recognition. The girl was Faith at sixteen, minus the sister. 

Before Faith could shoot her retort at the teen Faith's senses pricked up. From her peripheral vision the slayer caught something moving ridiculously fast towards them. It was no human that was for sure. Faith pushed the teen out of her way and blocked a punch from a butch looking Vampire. The punch had come at her fast and hard and Faith felt some bones in her hand breaking as she engulfed the Vamp's hand in her own. Faith clenched her jaw together tightly showing no emotion. Then, abiding to the basic rule of life, what goes around comes around; Faith twisted the Vampire's and pulled to dislocate its shoulder. The Vampire bellowed in pain and jumped away from Faith. Knowing better than to believe a dislocated shoulder would stop the Vamp, Faith continued her attack launching a combination of kicks and punches at the Vamp. 

Finally, with one strong kick to the Vampire's chest he fell back against one of the lower branches on a tree, bursting into dust. As Faith turned to check on the teen she had saved earlier she saw a large red wrench swinging towards the center on her face. Faith ducked but not fast enough because the wrench impacted on the top of her forehead. It was a blow that would have knocked a normal girl out completely, maybe even killed her. But Faith was no normal girl. Her head screamed in pain and a crown of blood began to drip down from the top of her forehead. 

Faith's new opponent was a miniscule Vampire who reminded Faith much of a shorter version of Andrew. The Vampire still held the large wrench in his hand and was readying to take another swing at Faith with it. This time Faith was quicker, she grabbed the Vampires arm and flipped him onto his back, still gripping the stake she had used to kill the first Vampire that night Faith raised her arm and plunged it for the stake. The Vampire exploded into dust, its remains scattering all over Faith whose face was dripping with blood from the wound to her cheek and forehead. 

Without wasting any time Faith jumped to her feet and scanned the premises. She caught sight of a foot protruding from behind a grave. The foot wore a sneaker that looked much like the blonde girl's and it was kicking. Something was going on back there. Faith raced over to the grave and saw that a third Vampire had the girl pinned down behind the grave but was having a hard time killing her with all the struggling the girl was putting up. Not caring to add another injury that night Faith sighed and staked the Vampire through the heart. With one loud scream the vampire exploded into dust, the dust deciding to settle on the blonde. 

"What were those things?" the blonde demanded. 

"Same thing your sister was," Faith shrugged, "Vampires." 

"Th-they can't be Vampires!" the blonde insisted, "Vampires are mythical creatures that are used to scare kids into staying away from dark places at night." 

"Those ain't stories kid," Faith sighed, "Dracula and all of is goons are real. Just ask B back in Sunnydale." 

"Sunnydale? That place that mysteriously got turned into the world's largest sinkhole over night?" the blonde wondered. 

"The one and only," Faith nodded, "What's you name kid?" 

"Alyson Webber," the girl replied, "But everyone calls me Aly. How about you?"

"Faith," Faith stated. 

"Faith? That's it?" Aly raised an eyebrow. 

"That's it," Faith nodded.

"You said you were a Slayer before," Aly started, "What's that?" 

"You don't want to know," Faith assured the girl, "It's one long speech that got a whole lot more complicated. You better get lost before some other Vamps decide to show up and kill you." 

"I don't have anywhere to go," Aly admitted, "Kaley used to let me stay in her dorm, but now she's dead. Mom's drunk all the time, if I go back…" Aly let her sentence hang. She didn't need to finish it. Faith knew exactly what would happen to the girl if she returned home. It was the same thing that would've happened to Faith. Yelling, Hitting and empty bottles being thrown at your head.

Faith frowned. She couldn't leave the girl here. It was like leaving her as a snack to the Vampires and yet the only other option was to take the girl with her. Faith was not one to be sentimental. She was not someone to show weakness, or caring, she was not one trust other people and let them into her life. And yet, there was something about this girl, a connection. 

"You can crash at my place," Faith relented, "One night and then you're out." Aly nodded in understanding and followed Faith out of the cemetery and towards her apartment. 

**************************************************************************************

**T**he next morning Faith woke up with a splitting headache that was not due to an extreme hangover from the night before. She lay asleep in her bed, a bandage across her cheek and another on her forehead. Faith had spent and hour the previous night cleaning up from patrol. It had been one of the busier nights, and certainly the messier of nights. In the past month of being on Boston Faith had managed not to get hurt. She hadn't had any serious injuries since nearly being killed by the bomb back in Sunnydale. But of course, Boston wasn't built on a Hellmouth.

Faith got out of bed and got changed. When she exited her room she found her stray, Aly, sitting on a chair in her kitchen reading one of the few books Giles and Wesley had insisted she take with her to Boston. Their argument had been that if she ever ran into a demon and needed to research how to kill it she would be able to. Faith never planned on using them and had taken them only to shut up the two Watchers. Clearing her throat Faith got the girl's attention. Aly looked up and managed a small smile in Faith's direction. 

"Morning," the Aly mumbled, going back to her book. Her blonde hair was tied up in a pony tale, a few of the shorter strands falling lose in front of her face. Her blue eyes focused intently on every word she read. "Do you know where I can get a copy of this?" 

"England?" Faith offered, clueless, "Ex-Watcher gave it to me." 

"Watchers they look after the Slayer right? It says that somewhere in here," Aly said gesturing to her book. Faith nodded confirmation of Aly's statement, "Rupert Giles, he's your ex-Watcher?" 

"How'd you know?" Faith wondered, eyeing the girl suspiciously. Maybe she knew more than she let on. 

"Well, he called before asking for you," Aly replied, "Said something about work, figure it's something about Slaying. Said it was important you call him back. He sounded very British and nervous talking to me." 

"That's G-man," Faith shrugged. She didn't know what else to say. Shad hadn't heard from Giles since she had arrived in Boston a month ago. They had an understanding that she could take care of herself without any help and that they weren't to contact her unless they needed to. Angel was the only one who she kept in constant contact with. "Guess I'd better call him." 

"Guess so," Aly mimicked Faith's shrug and turned back to the book she had been reading.

Faith didn't have a home phone. She had a cell phone that Angel had given her as an early Christmas present. So, her cell phone was the only phone she used. Angel insisted paying the monthly bill and despite herself Faith had agreed. With her cell she never missed a call while she was working or on patrol. Faith grabbed her cell from the table beside Aly and scanned her speed dial for Giles' new number. 

The Scooby gang and some of the Potentials turned Slayers had moved on to the other Hellmouth over Cleveland. They were now living in a hotel until they could afford better accommodations or decided to move the camp to England. Wood and Andrew had followed Buffy and the others there, having no where else to go. Wood had survived, but Faith couldn't stay with him. She wasn't ready to start working on her first semi-functional relationship. 

Buffy picked up the phone after the second ring and Faith sighed. She had known the chances of having someone other than Giles pick up the phone, it had happened the only other time Faith had ever had to contact the Watcher. The last time it had been Willow to pick up, the witch had been having a meeting with Giles at the time. Faith had hoped that if someone else had picked it would be Willow again, or even Xander, but the last thing she needed was to talk with Buffy. The two Slayers still had a lot of friction between them. 

__

"Hello?" when she got no answer Buffy repeated it, "Hello?" 

"Yo B," Faith answered, "G-man around?" 

__

"Faith," Buffy's tone was still bitter. After all, her friends had kicked her out of the house and voted Faith their leader. "Yeah, he's right here." 

"Faith," Giles voice sounded on the phone, as Buffy's faded into the background, "Hello." 

"What d'ya need?" Faith demanded. 

__

"Yes, well, _Willow has recently located a Slayer in your area. We'd like you to find her for us,"_ _Giles announced._

"Just tell me where G," Faith sighed. Finding a Slayer was just what she needed to make her day even worse. She already had to deal with Aly and her job in which she had to work the dreaded night shift at. Now she would have to search for a Slayer too. 

__

"Well, we did the a locator spell last night and Willow made sure to put a special mark for you," Giles ranted, "And there were a number of Slayers scattered throughout the Boston area. But there is one girl who seems to be emitting a rather large amount of power around your specific area. She seems to be a very powerful girl, almost as powerful as Buffy and yourself. It is rather strange. When Willow did her spell she not only called every Potential in the world but increased your and Buffy's abilities, it seems that the same happened with this girl but at a lower degree." 

"Whoa, I only need to know where this girl is," Faith told the watcher. 

__

"Well, the searching spell revealed the girl's location at the time and then revealed the name," Giles explained, "It is quite an extraordinary spell that Willow cooked up. Anyway, the girl's name is Alyson Webber. Think you can find her." 

Faith looked towards Aly, "Yeah, I think I can." 

__

"Good, when you do I need you to contact me and I will arrange to have someone come over to get her and bring her back here so we can train her," Giles went on, "Then, we will give you another of the names to search for." 

"Great," Faith groaned, "I'll get right on it." 

__

"Alright, thank you Faith," Giles sounded very tired just then, "Have a nice day." 

"Later G," Faith then hung up and stuck the cell in the back pocket of her black pants. 

"What'd he want?" Aly asked, shutting her book and tossing it on the table beside her. Faith stood silently for a second, her face unreadable. She didn't know how she was to tell the teen that she was a Slayer. It had been a complicated enough story when her Watcher had first come and told Faith who she was. Now, a whole lot more had just been added. The battle in Sunnydale, a spell to call Slayers… 

"What'd you read about Slayer's in that book?" Faith wondered. 

"That there's only one," Aly responded. 

"Only supposed to be one, B screwed with that rule," Faith corrected, "She died and that triggered some chick named Kendra, but B was brought back to life and when Kendra died I was called." 

"So, there's two Slayers now?" Aly inquired. 

"Again, B screwed with that rule," Faith continued, "That whole thing in Sunnydale wasn't no earthquake. Big Bad named the First was trying to wipe out the Slayer line. Potential Slayers from around the world were bunking up in one house, it was hell, but they went into battle and a witch did a spell to make every Potential become a Slayer. Now, there's hundreds."

"So, any girl could be a Slayer?" Aly asked. 

"Yeah," Faith nodded, "Sucks doesn't it? Takes all the fun out of being a Slayer. The world being on one girl's shoulder and crap." 

"Nah, gives a whole new meaning to girl power," Aly shook her head. 

"Tell that to the girls who ain't Slayers," Faith put in, thinking of Dawn Summers then. The look she had seen on the Slayer's younger sister as she watched the Slayers train. 

"But most girls don't know about Slayers, unless they are one," Aly pointed out, "Or unless they got saved by one after almost being killed by their dead sister." 

"Well, G called to tell me he had found a Slayer here in Boston," Faith stated, preparing to drop the bomb, "Girl named Alyson Webber." 

"Damn," Aly breathed, "Can't be." 

"Well it is," Faith sighed, "You're another with the power and strength to fight Vampires and demons." 

"So, what happens now?" Aly wanted to know, "Do I like get training or do I just go out and fight?" 

"You go to Cleveland where B'll train you with the other Slayers," Faith announced, "Or England if they decide to move on. They train you and then you come back an' fight." 

"Couldn't you train me?" Aly wondered, "I mean you're a Slayer and obviously know how to fight." 

"Not a great idea kid," Faith moved to the fridge and grabbed the milk carton out of it, "I ain't the best role model. Or leader for that matter. I'd probably get you to kill people or lead you into a trap where a bomb explodes and nearly kills both of us. Plus, B's the best and there are other Slayers training there too." 

"All the more reason for me to stay here," Aly insisted, "Think about it Faith, you're probably tougher than this B chick, you know the streets of Boston and you'll be training me one on one." 

"Look Aly, I'm here to get away from the stupid Slayer crap goin' on there," Faith explained, "I left them 'cause I didn't want to look out for no one else. Unlike B I can't handle having to worry whether someone under my protection is about to get killed by some freak demon or Vampire. I don't work like that. I work alone." 

"I'm a slayer too," Aly pointed out, "I grew up in a world where I had to look after myself. All I need is a bit of training. I've got the Slayer strength too; I don't need protection, just guidance. Just think about it." 

"Fine," Faith exhaled, "I ain't promising anything though." 

"Great," Aly grinned the triumphant grin Faith had seen the night before, "Can I stay here until you decided." 

"Just stay out of my way," Faith warned. She didn't know why she had given into the girl_,_ but Faith had saved her life and now she needed to watch out for the girl until she had the proper Slayer training, hopefully in California where Faith could quit worrying about her. Faith wondered if this was how Buffy felt about Dawn. 

**************************************************************************************

Dawn Summers stepped out of the Greyhound bus, lugging her duffel bag behind her. Boston seemed so huge with the crowds of people pushing her around trying to get by her as she stood staring out into the street. She really had no idea why she had come here, why the little voice in her head had told her, when she packed her bags ready to get away from Buffy and the Slayers, to go to Boston. Faith lived in Boston but it wasn't like Faith and Dawn had gotten along well since Faith had tried to kill her. Before though, before they had been almost like sisters, Faith allowing Dawn to do the things that Buffy had forbid. Like fighting and staking Vampires. 

She probably would've been run over by all the people if her companion hadn't grabbed her arm and pulled her into a cab that he had waved down. The taxi was dirty and smelt horrible. Dawn waited patiently as the driver shoved their bags into the trunk and turned to her companion trying not to breathe the morbid smell. Her companion, Xander Harris, grinned his goofy grin, winking at her with his remaining eye. Dawn felt a pang of sadness as she remembered the previous months leading up to the big battle. They had lost so much in that fight, friends, lovers and eyes. 

Dawn knew that the reason Xander had followed her to Boston was because there was nothing left for him back with the others. Willow, Buffy and Giles were packing up to go to England along with the Slayers they had gathered and Wood and Andrew. They were going to set up Camp somewhere in England for a while. Buffy was going to focus on training and Willow and Giles were going to do their best to rebuild the Council, with some improvements. There was nothing left for them. Anya was dead, Buffy too busy with the slayer's to pay attention to much else and when Willow wasn't doing spells to find new slayers she was with Kennedy. So, they ditched Cleveland and headed to the onlyplace they could think of that would be logical to head to. 

Of course, how going to Boston to see Faith was logical for either of them no one knew. Actually, no one knew that they had even left. Dawn and Xander had agreed that they were better not to tell anyone that they were leaving until they had already arrived at their destination. No one would really notice they were gone anyway. They were invisible to anyone but each other. Dawn grinned thinking of Buffy's face when she and Xander called to tell her what was going on. Her sister would go to England and Dawn would stay in the States with Xander and Faith. To Dawn it made more sense than going to England. 

The cab pulled up in front of a shabby apartment building and Xander and Dawn slid out of the cap hauling their bags out of the trunk of the cab and up into the building. The inside looked worse than the outside and Dawn feared seeing what Faith's apartment looked like. They had gotten the address from Angel when Dawn had gone over to visit him the previous weekend. She didn't tell the Vampire why she needed to know where Faith lived; only that she needed the address. 

__

They took the stairs, not trusting that the elevator would hold out on them and walked the two flights to Faith's floor dragging their luggage with them. Faith apartment was 3B and Dawn stepped up and knocked on the door. Xander stood fidgeting behind her, running his hands through his hair picking up and putting down his duffel over and over again. Finally, the door opened to reveal a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes, the girl was certainly not Faith. "Uh, does Faith live here?" Dawn asked. The girl nodded and walked away from the door. 

"FAITH!" she shouted, "There are people here for you!" 

"Damn it!" they heard Faith curse from the other room, "Damn it, Damn it! Why the hell did you answer the door?" 

"'Cause someone knocked," the girl replied obviously. Faith appeared looking panicked, but when she saw them she seemed to relax a bit and swatted the blonde across the head. "Ow!" she complained. 

"Live with it kid," Faith advised, "You want training, you're gonna have to endure more than that." 

"Great," the blonde groaned and picked up a book, peering at Dawn and Xander every so often. 

"B know you two are here?" Faith asked. 

"No," Dawn replied as Xander fiddled with a book her had found on the way in. Dawn had noticed how nervous and flighty he was, and with reason too. He and Faith didn't have the best track record ever.

"So whadda ya want?" Faith wanted to know, eyeing them carefully. 

"They're moving the camp to England," Dawn explained, "Xand and I don't want to go and don't want to stay in LA with Angel. So, we came here." 

"Great, just what I need," Faith groaned, "You ain't staying here. Kid already claimed whatever space I got left." 

"Who is she?" Xander spoke up, looking over to the blonde who had now stopped pretending to be reading and paid full attention to them. 

"Aly Webber," the blonde introduced herself and stood up, walking over to Xander and sizing him up, "I'm a Slayer." 

"Huh," Xander nodded, "Tell Giles yet?" 

"No, she didn't," Aly told him before Faith could reply, "She's deciding whether she'll train me or not. Who are you two?" 

"I'm Dawn Summers," Dawn said, "And that's Xander Harris."

"She's B's kid sister," Faith told her fellow slayer, "And he's the knight in shining armour." 

"Aren't they supposed to come with two eyes?" Aly teased, looking at Xander's eye-patch with interest. 

"Well Eye-Poking-Preacher kind of changed that," Xander shrugged, "But hey, he got his." 

"They can stay," Aly decided. Faith glared at the blonde slayer. 

"Who put you in charge?" Faith demanded to know. This girl was threatening her authority over her own place, and even though Faith had begun to think of the younger girl as her protégéé since she had saved her life the night before and had Aly follow her home she didn't like people who threatened her authority. 

"I did," Aly sing-songed, "Anyway, where else they gonna stay? Probably have no money left from Cab and bus fair. Damn public transportations are a rip off."

"She's kind of right," Dawn shifted in her place, "All the money Xander and I were able to pool together went into getting here. We can get jobs but until then we've got nowhere else to go." 

"Fine," Faith took a deep breath, "Just-" 

"Stay out of my way," Dawn and Aly chimed in, cutting the dark haired slayer off as Xander just smirked. 

"Give the kids a prize!" Faith exclaimed sarcastically, grabbing her jacket and heading for the door. 

"Where ya goin'?" Aly asked after her. 

"To work," Faith acknowledged, "How d'ya think I afford this place?" 

"You mean you actually have to pay rent?" Xander mused, cracking another of his patented Xander Harris grins. Dawn rolled her eyes and walked the rest of the way into the apartment as Faith exited. 

"This should be fun," Dawn beamed.

**************************************************************************************

**I**f there was anything Faith hated more than her job, it was working her job on the night shift. She had gotten a job waitressing at a diner in her area of Boston. The diner was worse than her apartment and during the night shift she had to deal with the drunk and her slime bag manager. That night, being a Friday should've been relatively busy, but much to Faith's dismay it was rather quiet. Not that she was complaining. 

It was nearing eleven when Faith decided to ditch work. If she got fired too bad, being alone in the diner with nothing to do was worse than being stuck in the diner serving a bunch of sleazy drunkards. She needed the money to keep her apartment, but she could always find another job. On her way to the door her manager walked in. Her manager was a slimy man with pale, pasty while skin, and greasy black hair that seemed to glisten even if there were no light around. Faith wished that she could kill him. He was probably the worst part of the job. 

"Faith," he hissed, grinning a wide horrid grin at Faith, "My favourite employee. Looks like it's just me and you tonight." 

"Looks like," Faith agreed, bored. It was always the same. She had a shift by herself, the regular crowd didn't show up and the Don, the manager, made a pass at her. She knew she should just quit and find something better. But this job paid well enough in tips. Sure, she could get something a lot better. In prison she had received her GED, the equivalent to a High School diploma. 

Just then her manager, Rico, reached one of his past white hands out and grabbed onto Faith's thigh. Faith clenched her fists together. Sure, she was used to slimebags like him making passes at her, but they usually got the point after she kicked their ass the first time. This guy just didn't seem to ever get the big picture. 

Tonight, Faith wasn't going to stand for it. She was having a bad enough day as it was and she really needed to kick some monster ass. Technically her manager was no demon, but tonight she could make the exception. She grabbed his arm that was invading her personal space and twisted it away from her body. The man's face was now distorted in pain. Faith smirked and flipped the man onto his back and then pressed her boot heal on his Adam's apple. 

Rico, the manager of the dumpy diner Faith had found work at sputtered under his employee's boot. Faith could see that now he's had just about as much of Faith as he could handle. His face slowly began to turn blue and Faith removed her foot from his neck. As the slimebag regained his breath and past color he looked at Faith with new fear in his eyes. "You're fired!" he managed to spit out. 

"Thank god," Faith sighed, as she threw her apron on him and walked out of the diner. 

Faith walked into an empty apartment about fifteen minutes later. Her new houseguests were nowhere in sights and Faith felt relieved as she showered quickly and slipped on her leather pants, halter and jacket. She was going to patrol at the place she would be most likely able to find Vamps on this night, The Occult. The club had been open for a month and was the most successful club in Boston already. Anyone over sixteen was allowed in, and if you were twenty-one and over you were allowed the privilege of drinking the alcohol. And being Friday Faith knew that the club would be busy. 

Flashing Neon lights swirled around the slayer as she slipped into the club and headed over to the bar to order some drinks.Faith ordered herself a drink and scanned the dance floor. Her leather pants hugged her just right in all the right places and her tank top revealed just enough to get the attention of any single male, and even the non-single males in the room the minute she danced onto the dance floor moving her hips seductively, hands moving above her head and she swayed to the band that was playing on stage. She changed dance partners frequently, only glancing at whom she was with as she looked for her next one and any possible Vampires lurking around. She didn't have to look too far. 

From somewhere in the back there was a loud crash and then screams erupted throughout the club.


	3. Chapter 2

****

Faith 

A New Beginning

A/N: I'm really glad that the first chapter was well received. I'm looking forward to this next chapter because there's a whole lot that I'm going to get to do. I added a list of Credits, actors I imagined portraying some of the roles I've made up. I hope that I'm doing a good job with this so far and that I've made all the right moves with this story. Thanks to those who reviewed. Please review and tell me what you think so far...

****

Chapters 2. 

**A**drenaline coursed through Faith's veins and she quickly searched for something to use as a weapon as a gang of Vampires pushed their way into the club. With a quick headcount Faith estimated that there were at least thirty Vampires. She found a make shift stake by the stage and looked over the clubbers who were quickly scattering. They all seemed to be heading towards stage exits, because it seemed that a smaller group of at least ten Vampires were entering through the main entrance. Faith caught sight of some familiar faces standing tall and poised for battle a little while away. Dawn, Xander and Aly all stood together preparing to fight. She saw that Xander and Dawn were already armed with their own stakes and Faith managed a smile, at least they had learnt something after all those years in Sunnydale. 

The Vampires glared at Faith, baring their fangs, but ignored her, instead, heading in the direction of Xander, Dawn and Aly. Faith broke her weapon in half and shouted out to Aly, "Hey kid!" Aly glanced quickly towards Faith and the Slayer tossed half of the piece of wood to the younger slayer, "Lesson one. This is wood, if shoved into a Vampire's heart it turns to dust. Got it?" 

"Got it," Aly nodded as she examined the wood carefully before gripping it tightly in her hand and returning to battle position. 

"Now let's see what you got," Faith smirked. She gripped the wood tightly in her hands and called out to the Vamps, "Hey boys! How 'bout a little fun." A few of the Vampires stopped and looked Faith over a little better. They grinned and nodded to each other, falling out of line with the rest and heading towards Faith. 

"We're not here for the Slayer," another of the Vamps back in line growled at the five heading towards Faith. 

"Ah, we're just going to have a little fun killing her," one of them whined. 

"Really?" Faith raised an eyebrow, "Who said anything about killing?" And with ease Faith lurched forward in a jump kick hitting the whiney Vampire directly in the chest sending him stumbling back a few feet. 

"Keep her busy," a loud voice boomed from the front of the large group all heading towards Faith's new houseguests, "While I get what the boss wants." Five other Vampires obliged to the head Vampire's request and turned to join the attack on Faith. 

"This should be fun," Faith smiled, "Been a while since I got this much action." 

"It'll be the last time too," a burly vamp chuckled as he took out a long shining silver knife from one of his pockets. 

"We'll see," Faith shrugged, her eyes watching the silver blade with cautiousness. The Vampire Faith had kicked took that moment to fight back and Faith quickly feigned to the right and staked the Vampire as he lost balance. A cloud of dust appeared where the Vamp had once been and Faith turned back to the group ready for more. This was what she loved about slaying. 

The burly knife bearing Vamp was next, he came at Faith knife first and Faith tried to quickly side-step the attack but the Vampire was just as quick as she was and the knife came in contact with Faith's right arm, slicing off a chunk of Faith's skin. Not even taking time to feel the pain Faith retaliated, kicking the large Vamp with all her strength on the side of his head. The Vamp was knocked off guard for a second, but that second was long enough for Faith to stick her stake into the Vamp's chest and watch him explode into dust. She scooped the knife up off the ground and kicked off another attacker as she did. 

Faith noticed that the Vamps seemed to be trying to strategically take her down, each attack one at a time trying to slowly wear Faith down. But there weren't enough Vampires in the whole of Boston to wear Faith down. As Faith elbowed a Vamp in the gut she managed to glance over her shoulder and steal a look at Dawn, Xander and Aly. The three seemed to be holding their own, but Faith didn't know how long they would last. There were at least forty Vampires and only four of them. 

In the moment that Faith was checking out the others two Vamps attacked form either side of her. Faith came back to the fight in time to block of one attack but another knife yielding Vamp dug his shiny silver blade into Faith's gut. The Slayer cursed as she was reminded again why she had left Cleveland and the other Slayers. Not letting this take her down Faith staked the Vamp before he had a chance to remove the knife from Faith's new wound. Faith removed the weapon herself and placed it in her belt alongside the other weapon she had retrieved. 

The wound was bleeding viciously but there were still too many Vamps for Faith to even think of retreating from the club just yet. Faith managed to stake two more Vamps quick and easy but unless there was some sort of miracle Faith found herself doubting whether or not she would be able to hold these Vamps back. The last time Faith had been stabbed by a knife she had ended up in a coma, she highly doubted that she would be able to fight off forty Vamps with this wound. 

Faith heard Dawn yell Xander's name then and she knew that something was wrong. Buffy was going to kill her if she made it out of here alive. But along with Dawn's cry there came the sound of Vampire's busting into dust from the other side of the room and Faith wondered if it was possible it was Xander doing it. But her mind wasn't on that long; she had to focus on the battle that she seemed to be quickly losing. She moved in to stake a Vamp in front of her, but surprisingly it exploded into dust on its own and revealed a man with blonde hair and mischievous blue eyes. 

"Let's get out of here!" the voice from earlier demanded, "There are two Slayers and a Hunter now, there's no reason to stay. We'll get the other one later." The remaining Vamps began to scatter then and Faith glanced away from the blonde and looked towards the other three. 

Only two were standing there, Aly and Dawn staring wide-eyed at the group of Vampires that were retreating. Dawn dropped her stake in a clatter onto the floor and then seemed to follow it, falling onto her knees and tears rolled down her cheeks. "No! No!" she shouted after the Vamps, "Bring him back! You can't take him!" 

"Shit," Faith cursed, racing over to them, "What the hell happened?" 

"We were fighting them off as best we could," Aly shrugged, "Two attacked Xander and got him to drop his stake and this real big Vamp grabbed him." 

"They took someone?" the blonde guy asked, joining them. 

"My friend," Dawn nodded, "Xander." 

"Who're you?" Aly wondered, examining the stranger closely. 

"I'm Seth," he introduced. 

"They called you a Hunter," Aly stated, "What's that." 

"It's what I am," Seth shrugged, he turned to Faith, "You alright?" 

"Five by Five," Faith muttered clutching her wound, "Damn, B's gonna kill me." 

"Hey! You!" A heavy man with dark hair was speed walking towards them; Seth winked at the girls and then took off leaving Faith, Dawn and Aly to handle whatever came next.

"What?" Faith asked. 

"Those things killed my bouncer!" the man exclaimed. 

"Well, they tend to do those things," Aly shrugged, remembering her sister rising from the grave the night before. 

"Yeah, well I'm going need a new bouncer now," the man grumbled. 

"What's that got to do with us?" Faith wondered. She just wanted to get out of there and back to her apartment to bandage this wound before it bled her to death. 

"You seemed able to handle those things," The man exclaimed, "I'm Barry Winters by the way. Just wondering if you'd like to take over the job." 

"What's it pay?" Faith wondered. She knew she was going to take the job, she just didn't want to give in easily. 

"Depends on the night," Winters shrugged, "And the customers." 

"When do I start?" Faith asked. 

"Monday night sound alright?" Winters wondered, "Got to get this place cleaned up." 

"It's fine," Faith nodded as Aly helped Dawn up off the floor. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

**T**he_y_ were back in Faith's apartment in less than fifteen minutes and Faith had already treated her gut and arm wounds. Dawn was still a wreck and Faith could understand. She had seen how close Xander and Dawn had become since she had returned to Sunnydale, they were a unit. Aly was pulling out books, already in tune to what the next job of the evening was. Faith wondered if maybe the kid was keeping something from Faith. She knew a whole lot about being a Slayer for only being a Slayer for a day. 

"I've never seen so many Vamps in one place," Dawn mused, seeming to calm down and catch their breath, "They were there to take Xander... and me." 

"What?" Faith asked. 

"They were there to take me too," Dawn repeated, "They tried to grab me too, after they got Xander. They wanted us." 

"Shit," Faith cursed, "This happen before?" 

"No," Dawn shook her head, "I mean, not that someone has wanted the both of us. Before it was just me, Glory and others trying to get me because I was the key."

"The key?" Aly spoke up from a corner of the room, sounding amused, "You're a key?" 

"Former Key," Dawn corrected, and then droned an explanation, "A mystical ball of energy that could destroy the universe that a bunch of monks decided to turn into a human and send to the Slayer to be protected from the Hell God Glorificus." 

"That's got to suck," Aly muttered. 

"Tell me about it," Dawn nodded gloomily. Faith remembered the dreams she had had in prison. She had seen a lot of what went on in Sunnydale that year. Dawn being the Key, Glory kidnapping Dawn, Buffy saving the world by sacrificing her life. She had slept in her prison cell having to watch all of this unfold in Sunnydale and not be able to help out. 

"Don't know why they'd want Xander though," Dawn sighed. The two Slayers looked at Dawn and couldn't help but hope that Xander was still alive and that they would get him back. For Dawn's sake and for his own. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

****

Xander Harris groaned in pain. His whole body felt numb and his head was pounding. He tried to remember where he was, how he had gotten there, and where Dawn was. He remembered the club, the fight, and Dawn calling out his name. Had they gotten her too? 

__

Please let Dawn be alright. Don't let anything have happened to her. 

He found himself praying for her safety. Dawn was the one good thing left in his life; he couldn't risk losing her. Ever since the whole thing with the first had started, even before that, he and Dawn had begun to form a bond, each taking care of the other. They were the weaker ones of the group, neither capable of fighting on their own. That's why they had each other, so that they wouldn't have to be alone. 

Slowly Xander opened his eyes to examine his surroundings. It was black everywhere and he couldn't see anything for a few moments. Eventually his eyes began to adjust to the darkness and he could see outlines of furniture, figures standing in the background but now much else, not anything helpful. He moved his arms and felt the cold chains attached to his wrist as chains fell against his bear chest. He was naked from the hips up. 

He wondered if this was another of those ritual things, if they were going to try to take his blood like that demon woman had when they were back in Sunnydale. It would be just his luck, being offered as a sacrifice once again. 

Xander heard voices then, low whispers that were barely audible. Xander strained to hear what was being said, stayed as still as possible to make as little noise as he could. 

__

"Where's the other one?" one of the voices hissed, it was female and spoke slowly and seductively. 

"She's still with the Slayer," another replied, this one male and it sounded frightened "We'll get her soon. I promise you master." 

"You better!" A third voice snapped this one male as well, "I will not take failure from anyone." 

"I-I understand master," the first male voice faltered.

"What do we do with the boy for now?" the woman asked, "Can I play with him?" Xander could tell that she was pouting just by the way she spoke the second part. He feared what she meant by 'play'. 

"Do what you wish Desiree," the master said, "But I do not want one ounce of blood split. Understand?" 

"Yes," Desiree replied, disappointed, "Whatever you wish." 

"And you! Go get the girl before I stake you myself!" the master shouted. 

"Y-yes sir! R-right away!" the servant replied and Xander could hear him scuttle off. 

The girl, they were looking for someone else now, someone who was with the Slayer. Dawn. Xander had to get out of there, had to save Dawn. He had promised he would protect her and so far he had messed up. He yanked on the chains that kept him captive; he used all the strength he could sum up. It was no good though. He wasn't a Vampire, didn't have the strength to free himself from these chains. Xander settled against the cold stone wall in defeat. 

They needed him and Dawn for something and by the sound of it, it was something big. Xander needed to warn Dawn and Faith but he had no way of doing so. All he could do was wait and hope that they would somehow figure out what was going on. 

"I promise I'll keep you safe Dawnie," Xander whispered to himself, "I promise." 

The clicking of shoes distracted Xander then and he looked up to see a beautiful woman with long brown hair and a red dress clinging to her in all the right places. "Hello boy," she greeted, Xander knew instantly who she was, Desiree. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

Seth stepped into the large mansion and wandered in the dark to the kitchen and let the keys fall on the counter before flicking on the lights. Immediately everything before him was visible. The large, spacious, kitchen table, the counters that encircled half the room and the entrance way into the dining room. He had inherited this place a year ago when he father had died. 

He heard someone come up behind him. He didn't turn around though he just sighed and said, "Rough night." 

"Where'd you go?" the newcomer wondered, the voice belonged to a man. 

"The Occult," Seth replied, "Mass attack, about thirty vamps." 

"The bands playing there next month, right?" the other wondered. 

"Yeah," Seth nodded, "They took some guy. Friend of the Slayer's." 

"Slayer?" the man stepped into view, he hair was dyed jet black and his eyebrow was raised, "Which one?" 

"Faith," Seth answered, "There were two other girls with her. One of them was a slayer, the other wasn't. They took some guy named Xander."

"Harris?" this was a question, not a statement. 

"Someone from back in Sunnydale?" Seth wanted to know. 

"Could be," he shrugged, "Who were the girls?" 

"One was blonde, about fifteen," Seth described, "The other around eighteen would be my guess, long brown hair and blue eyes, was screaming out for that Xander guy. Both were really hot." 

"Don't know about the blonde, but the other one could be Dawn," Seth's friend sighed, "Although it's hard to believe that Dawn and Xander would be out here in Boston, away from Buffy." 

"Come on Osbourne," Seth groaned, "You speaking in code or something?" 

"Sorry, talking to myself," he shrugged, "Do you know what they wanted with Xander?" 

"Oz, if I knew I would've told you," Seth pointed out.

"We better pay a visit to Faith tomorrow," Oz suggested, "Still got that address we followed her to last month?" 

"Right here," Seth smirked patting his jacket pocket, "Never leave home without it." Oz shook his head and disappeared out of the room. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

**_D_**awn groaned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and tried to remember where she was. Then, the events of the previous day came flooding back. From the bus ride in Cleveland to the Vampire attack and Xander's kidnapping. She bolted upright on the couch; Xander had been taken by a group of Vampires! A sharp pain hit Dawn and she felt tears rising again. What was she supposed to do without Xander? They were a team. 

"Tough night, huh?" She heard Aly's voice from behind her. 

"What do they want with us?" Dawn asked. 

"You're asking me?" Aly almost laughed, "Until yesterday I was as normal as normal can be and now I'm a freaking Slayer!" 

"Sorry," Dawn shrugged, "Wasn't really expecting an answer though." 

"You'll get one though," Aly put, "Eventually I mean. We'll find out what those Vamps want with you two and we'll stake 'em." 

"Wish it were that easy," Dawn leaned back in the couch. 

"Sorry kid but it ain't," Faith joined them in the living room with a box of books. 

"Where'd you get those?" Dawn wondered. 

"Wes sent them to me last week," Faith replied, "Said I needed more references, never opened it." 

"Good old Wes," Dawn murmured, "Always thinking of the benefit of others. I've seen enough books in the past year to know I hate them." 

"Guess we better get cracking," Aly groaned, "I'm willing to bet that Faith has another box of these things hidden away." 

"Watch what you wish for," Dawn warned her, "You'll be surprised what could happen." 

"I don't think anything could surprise me anymore," Aly said, ripping open the box. There was a knock on the door and Faith moved away from the teens to answer it. The door swung open and both teens turned to see who was there. There stood Seth and another man. "I stand corrected." 

"Oz?" Both Faith and Dawn said simultaneously. 

"The one and only," Seth laughed and shoved Oz into the apartment disregarding the fact that Faith hadn't invited them in, "Nice place you got." 

"How do you know where I live?" Faith wanted to know. 

"Some things are better left unknown," Seth winked. 

"Dawn…" Oz looked at the teen, "Xander?" 

"They took him last night," Dawn replied, "They tried to take me too but they didn't get a chance to." 

"They'll probably try again," Oz mentioned, "If it's important." 

"I know," Dawn nodded, "How've you been." 

"Better," Oz shrugged, "You?" 

"Been through hell," Dawn replied. 

"Willow?" Dawn saw a flicker of something in Oz's eyes. 

"Tara got shot and Willow went evil," Dawn informed her old friend, "Xander saved the world and brought Willow back. She's a goddess, activated all the Slayers in the world. She has a new girlfriend now a Slayer named Kennedy. She's good." 

"Good," Oz nodded.

"I missed you," Dawn told him, "After you left things were different and I didn't get to see you when you came back." 

"I know," Oz nodded. 

"Although technically I wasn't there at the time, but still…" Dawn trailed off realizing she was babbling.

"I heard about that," Oz told her, "Talked to Angel a while after it happened and he told me the whole story."

"OK I think I'm missing out on something!" Aly blurted, "Who're you." 

"Oz," Oz answered, "I'm an old friend from Sunnydale." 

"He's also a werewolf," Dawn interjected, "But that doesn't matter." 

"A werewolf?" Aly raised and eyebrow, "Cool." 

"No too cool when it's the full moon," Oz told her. 

"He's got his wolf under control, mostly," Seth mentioned. 

"How do you two know each other?" Aly questioned. 

"Started a band together," Seth replied. 

"What d'ya want?" Faith cut Aly off before she could as any more questions. 

"To help," Oz replied. 

"Alright," Faith nodded, "Than where do we start." 

"By researching two Vampires Korl and Desiree," Seth told them, "They're the big bads here in Boston and chances are they have your friend. Which means he's involved in something very important because Korl and Desiree don't waist their time with humans. They kill and move on, never taking anyone with them if they're of no value." 

"How come you haven't taken them down?" Faith wondered.

"They're deep underground and only come up for food," Seth explained, "When they come up they come up together and they are two of the strongest Vampires left in the world. If I took them on alone I'd die." 

"You won't be alone this time," Faith mentioned, "Grab a book and start researching." 


	4. Chapter 3

****

Faith

A New Beginning

A/N: Thank to all those who reviewed and I'm very sorry that I didn't update sooner. I've just been so busy over that past few months. If I get good feedback from this chapter I'll be sure to hurry it up and Update as soon as I can. This series is a thrill to write and I have so many ideas as to where this can go. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please review to tell me what you think!

** **

Chapter 3

**__**

Aly leaned against the wall deeply enthralled in the book she was reading. The others were scuttling around the room every two seconds grabbing another book trying to find something, anything, in their search for information on Desiree and Korl. It seemed that they were having no such luck. Aly should've abandoned this book long ago; it was just a journal about a bunch of monks. For some reason she couldn't put it down though, she had to find out what it was about. 

Her interest in the journal only really started when something called the Key was mentioned. She remembered Dawn saying something about her being the Key to the Universe. Flipping the page Aly didn't even look up to see what the others were up to. It didn't matter, as long as there were three other people looking for information on Korl and Desiree she could brush up on the history of the Key. 

She knew that Xander's life was on the line here, but she couldn't help it. There was something about this book. Silently she reminded herself that she would later have to ask Dawn and Faith if it were possible for a book to have some sort of spell on it to make someone want to read it. 

"Aly?" she heard Dawn calling her and her trance was broken. 

"Yeah?" Aly looked up from the book. She saw Dawn's sad eyes and regretted even more not putting more effort into searching. 

"Find anything?" Dawn asked. Aly looked down at the book once more, she hated to put it down but she had no choice. They needed to save Xander. 

"No," Aly sighed and began to shut the book but something caught her eye, a date, December 1997. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

__

December, 1997

We have to move quickly. The Vampires are quickly invading our hide-away and we have no power to keep them away. They search for the Key and its counter-part and they cannot get it. The evil that will come to be if they ever get them is too grave to describe. 

For months we have been working on a way to hide them amongst the humans but they're not ready to be sent in, not both of them. We only have enough power to insert one into an already existent human and we always planned to create a form for both. We have no choice, the Vampires will stop at nothing until they have what they search for and we can only sneak away one as it is. 

We have already found the carrier for the Lock, a boy in Sunnydale, California who will be protected by the Slayer. We know this because we have watched him for months with the impending doom of the Vampire attack hanging over us. He has befriended the newest Slayer and there is another woman who shows great potential of magic. 

One day the Key too will need to be protected by the Slayer, either from the Hell-Goddess Glorificus or the Vampires. Whoever survives the Vampire invasion will be working day and night to put the Key in human form, to hide her from the evil… 

~*~*~*~*~*~

**_A_**ly stared at the book in utter disbelief. The answers to their question had been right in front of them all along. The Key, the Lock, the Vampires it was all right here. Dawn was watching her curiously; trying to read the Slayer's expression but Aly quickly removed any emotion from her features. "I think I found something," she muttered. 

"Yeah?" Oz looked up from his own book and Seth and Faith both raised their eyebrows in inquiry.

"Yeah," Aly nodded, "This book, it's the journal of a bunch of monks, the order who protected the Key. Not just the key though, its counter-part as well." 

"The Key has a counter-part?" Dawn wondered, "Like a Lock or something?" 

"Exactly," Aly nodded, "The Lock. In December of '97 Vampires attacked their hiding place searching for both the Key and the Lock. The monks only had enough power to transfer the power of the Lock into an already existing Human boy even though they always planned to create the Lock themselves.

"Anyway, they did just that. They transferred the power into a boy they had been watching for months. A boy in Sunnydale who had befriended the Slayer and whose other friend showed great potential to be a witch, or whatever. Anyway, they knew they would protect him. They said that one day the Key too would need to be protected and that they would hide the key in human form with the Slayer." 

"So, Xander's this Lock?" Dawn wanted to know Aly could see that her eyes were already beginning to tear up. 

"He isn't exactly the Lock per-say he's just got the power of the Lock in him," Aly told her. 

"Can-Can I see the book?" Dawn asked, faltering slightly. 

"Sure," Aly shrugged, handing it over to Dawn. The girl took the book and ran her fingers along the spine of the leather bound book. How much did they really know about the Key? They hadn't even known there was a Lock. 

"Xander..." Dawn trailed, "I-I'm gonna go for a walk." 

"Dawn..." Oz tried to say something to stop her but he couldn't. 

When Dawn was gone, the door being slammed behind her Faith turned to Aly. "Go after her," she advised, "Kid doesn't know the streets of Boston like you an' me." 

"Got it," Aly nodded and grabbed her sweater before heading out. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

**__**

Xander groaned. He didn't know how long he had been here. It could've been hours or even years. Everything since he had woken up here just blurred together. The torture, the echoing screams of torture that he wasn't sure had come from him or not. His good eye was closed now, his head bowed foreword. The she-vamp, Desiree, had left him alone a while ago. She would be back soon that he knew. 

She returned sooner than he expected her to. Her long nails grazed his bare chest and Xander lifted his head a little and opened his eye. He had to admit that she was pretty, with long wavy brown hair and big brown eyes and she was a Vampire. Just the type of woman Xander would usually fall for. Her full red lips curled upwards, obviously she knew what he was thinking. "Hello boy," she licked her lips as she walked around him. "Miss me?" When she got to response from Xander she pouted, "You look so tasty. I've been waiting a long time for this. I just wish I could have one sip of all that power." 

"Power?" Xander couldn't help but scoff at this, despite his pain; "Me have power? I think you got the wrong guy." 

"So naïve," She shook her head, "Doesn't even know what's inside of him. All that power put to waste in you. Thankfully soon it'll be mine, as soon as we get that despicable girl." 

"You'll never get her," Xander said through gritted teeth. 

"We will," Desiree assured him, "Be it through one of those nimrod Vampires that got you last night or Korl and I. But we'll get her, I assure you." 

"Desiree!" A loud voice boomed and Xander recognized it as the man who Desiree had just referred to as Korl. 

"Aww, we'll have to play again later," Desiree shrugged and her heels clicked as she headed towards the door. Xander sighed and couldn't help but be thankful that she wasn't crazy like Drusilla. Xander shuddered as he remembered the whips from earlier, maybe Dru wouldn't be so bad after all. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

**_B_**irds chirped happily as the sun beaded down on Boston. Despite the cold wind this was a beautiful day. Young lovers strolled hand in hand through the park smiling happily at each other. Kids screamed and laughed as they played in the jungle gym. Only one person in the whole park didn't seem excited about the beautiful fall day. A sullen girl with long brown hair and blue eyes sat on a bench along, staring at leather bound book, and her eyes glistened with tears. 

Dawn Summers hesitated before opening the book and slowly turning the pages. The book was old and gave out a musty smell that Dawn had become accustomed to after her many research sessions back in good old Sunnydale. Thinking of her home back in Sunnydale didn't help lighten her spirits either. Nothing was going right anymore. What had been home to Dawn for seven years was now buried beneath the crater that was Sunnydale along with Anya, Spike and Tara and her mother's graves. 

"Dawn..." the uncertain voice of Aly startled Dawn. 

"I want to be alone," Dawn informed the Slayer. 

"I know," Aly sighed, "It's just this is Boston, not Sunnydale. Things aren't like they were there." 

"Don't you think I know that!" Dawn exclaimed, "Don't you think I know that I'll never see Sunnydale again, or Spike, or Anya? Xander's all I have now and he's gone too."

"At least you had a home before this," Aly retorted, "And people who cared about you. Because my home basically consisted of my drunken abusive mother, and my sister who ran away when she was fifteen and only came back for me last year. Now, the one person I knew I could count on is dead and what do I get? I get attacked by her in the cemetery and then get told that I'm a Slayer! I didn't ask for any of this crap. I didn't ask to have to baby-sit the tourist, I didn't ask to have to fight Vampires and demons. But y'know I've got to anyway. 

"Life sucks, yeah I get that. But instead of moping around out here in the park you should be back at Faith's trying to find out more about where Korl and Desiree are. We know why they wanted him but we also know that he's still alive because they need you too. So suck it up because both yours and Xander's live depends on it." 

Dawn blinked. She stared at Aly and absorbed everything that was said. Aly was right. "Alright," Dawn nodded, "Just give me a few minutes, to y'know recollect myself. I know my way back to the apartment from here." 

"Did you here what I said?" Aly raised and eyebrow, "Desiree and Korl want you too." 

"They're Vampires," Dawn reminded her, "They can't come out in the sun." 

"Alright," Aly hesitated. The fifteen-year-old blonde sighed and headed back towards Faith's apartment. 

Dawn took a deep breath and opened the journal again, skimming through the entries and absorbing everything she could about the Key and the Lock. Aly had been right, Xander wasn't the Lock. The Lock was just inside Xander. Xander had been born, all his memories were real, and he had lived his whole full life. It was only at fifteen that Xander had received his little "gift" from the monks. Dawn on the other had been the key, the monks had molded her into her human form, and the monks had created all her memories. In reality she was only 3. 

"Uh... you're on my bench," a male voice from behind Dawn once again interrupted Dawn's reading. Frustrated, Dawn turned around to see whom the voice belonged to. The first thing she saw was a Superman comic book, she half expected to see Andrew standing there. Instead she found a cute boy with mussed brown hair and brown eyes. He wore a shirt advertising Death Cab for Cutie and had baggy jeans on. 

"S-sorry," Dawn stuttered nervously, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "Didn't know this was anyone's bench." 

"S'okay," the boy shrugged, "There's plenty of room for both of us." Dawn nodded and slid down a little on the bench leaving some room for the stranger to sit. "I'm Chris." 

"I'm Dawn," Dawn introduced a small smile playing on her lips, despite what she had been thinking of seconds earlier. 

"Whatcha reading Dawn?" Chris wanted to know. 

"Just some old book," Dawn shrugged, shutting the book, "Something a friend lent me." 

"Yeah I'm reading this," Chris showed her the comic that she already knew he was reading. 

"That's supposed to be a good one," Dawn interjected. She couldn't help it, after living with Andrew for as long as she did, and even Xander, she had picked up on a few things about comic books. 

"You read comics?" Chris wondered, surprised. 

"No, it's just these guys that used to live with me and my sister used to," Dawn shrugged, "One of them was the big comic book geek. Could hardly get through a sentence without mentioning something from a comic, or Star Trek." 

"Boyfriend?" Chris wondered. 

"OH no," Dawn shook her head, "Just friends of my sister."

"OK," Chris nodded and couldn't help but notice that he seemed relieved by this, "How old is your sister?" 

"Twenty-one," Dawn replied, "We lived in Sunnydale for a while before moving to Cleveland." 

"Oh, tourist?" Chris looked dejected again. 

"Kind of," Dawn nodded, "I'm living with an old friend right now. She lives in Boston and I decided to come stay with her cause my sister's moving to England." 

"I lived in California for a while," Chris told her, "in LA. My dad got transferred to Boston last year. My mom didn't want to leave so she stayed behind with my sisters. I didn't mind the change." 

"I lived in LA for a while too," Dawn admitted, "Until I was ten." 

"How old are you now?" Chris wanted to know. 

"Seventeen," Dawn replied. 

"Me too," Chris grinned. Dawn glanced at her watch and sighed. 

"I got to go," she told him, "But it was nice meeting you Chris." 

"Can I get your number?" Chris asked. Dawn looked him over one more time and realized how audacious he must be being now asking her out. 

"Better if you give me yours," Dawn told him, "I don't exactly know my new number." Dawn stopped herself from mentioning her perished cell phone back in Sunnydale. Chris nodded and rummaged through his pockets for a paper and something to write with. 

A minute later Dawn was heading back to the apartment with a small smile and Chris' phone number tucked away in her pocket. She didn't know much about him except that they shared something in common, they both tended to babble when they were nervous. Dawn hadn't realized how much she had talked until she was well on her way to Faith's. 

Aly was outside waiting for Dawn when she got to the apartment. The Slayer was leaning against the wall beside the entrance door fiddling with a cigarette. Dawn frowned slightly and approached her. "You going to smoke that?" 

"Huh?" Aly looked up. 

"The cigarette," Dawn nodded at the cigarette in Aly's hand. 

"OH, no," Aly shook her head, "I quit." 

"Think you can get Faith to quit too?" Dawn wondered. 

"I wouldn't dare try," Aly told her, "What took you so long?" 

"I met this guy," Dawn shrugged. 

"A guy?" Aly gave Dawn a questioning look, 

"Yeah," Dawn nodded and opened the entrance door, holding it open for Aly. 

"Ok, one minute you're moping because your life sucks," Aly caught up to Dawn on the stairs, "And the next your picking up guys in the park." 

"I was sitting on his bench," Dawn explained, "And he we talked." 

"Did you give him your number?" Aly questioned. 

"No," Dawn shook her head; "I got his." They reached the apartment door and they opened it and entered the apartment, but Aly wasn't about to let the conversation go despite the fact that there were now others around. 

"Are you going to call him?" she wanted to know. 

"Call who?" Faith wondered from her spot on the floor. 

"This guy she met in the park," Aly blurted, making her way over to the books. 

"What's the progress?" Dawn wondered. 

"Nothing yet," Seth mentioned from the floor, "Did the journal say anything else?" 

"Not as far as I can tell," Dawn replied, "But if they were after Xan and me wouldn't they have come to Sunnydale?" 

"It's strange," Oz agreed. 

"No one else is going to acknowledge the guy in the park thing?" Aly wondered. 

"Maybe they figured that eventually you'd come to them," Faith offered. 

"We could use me as bait," Dawn suggested, "To lure them out and torture one of the vamps into telling us the hide-out." 

"Not a good idea," Aly shook her head, giving up, "I mean those type of things often turn out bad. I've seen the movies." 

"It worked with the Bringers," Dawn pointed to Faith, "We didn't learn all that much but it still worked." 

"I don't know..." The Slayer looked around, uncertain, "Aly is right, those type of things don't turn out good and I can't fight whatever Vamps they send with them and watch to make sure you're alright at the same time. If we lose track of Desiree and Korl when they take you we might never be able to find you." 

"Unless I'm the one who keeps watch," Oz interjected, "I mean, that way you still have all the strength you need to fight whatever Vamps there are and still have an eye on Dawn." 

"And if they don't have any other Vamps then you can _all _follow," Dawn pointed out, "It works out." 

"I'll think about it," Faith relented, "In the meantime keep searching for anything on where these Vamps might be hiding out." 

"What about the church?" Aly piped in, "The one where they attacked the monks?"

"I think I know where that is," Seth mentioned, shaking his blonde hair out of his eyes, "There's this abandoned monastery near the manor I live in. Could very well be that the Vamps are hanging out there."

Oz nodded in agreement, "If we go along with this whole 'bait' thing we should split in two groups. One stationed with Dawn and the other by the monestary in case that really is their hideout." 

Faith contemplated this a moment, trying to decide if this was the best way to do things. She hated leaving bait, especially if it was going to be Dawn. The last thing she needed was someone to be hurt and the way Dawn was planning it to go this definitely meant that she could get hurt. "No," she shook her head, "I think we should do what we did with the Bringers. Take a Vamp and force him to tell us the hide-out." 

"Fine," Dawn allowed. It was better than nothing at least. This way at least she knew she was doing her part in getting Xander back. After all, it was he fault all of this was happening. She was the Key; it was her they were after. _No_, she reminded herself; _they're after both Xander and me._ Still, she couldn't help but feel guilty about this whole thing. 

Once all the minor details were settled with the plan Dawn went back to reading the Journal while Faith, Seth and Oz continued to search through the books for as much information on Desiree and Korl as they could find. Aly, on the other hand, had ventured off to the bathroom. The door was shut and locked and none of the other knew what the new Slayer was doing in there it didn't really matter though because as long as Xander was still captured nothing else really mattered. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

__

Aly stood staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She had untied her blonde hair so it fell over her shoulder. It was hard to believe how much had changed in her life over the past two days, and yet she didn't look any different. Staring back at her was still the same fifteen-year-old girl who had had a bad home life for as long as she could remember. Any day now she would be turning sixteen and even then, she would still look the same. 

Promptly she opened a drawer and found a pair of scissors. Slowly she cut off her long locks. Now, her hair was shorter, and layered. In front her hair fell just above her eyes and it got only a little longer, slowly so that it wasn't too drastic, and the back of her head the hair was in the middle of her neck. She looked different now, felt different. Her face seemed prettier, older, more sophisticated. Things were going to be different for her from now on. She could feel it. Just like she could feel the power of the Slayer flowing through her veins now that she was more aware of it. It felt good. 

Slowly, she opened up the bathroom door taking a peak out into the room. Everyone was sitting around in mass depression and concentration. Already it seemed that Seth and Oz were becoming a part of the "little" group they had assembled over night. She recalled talking with Xander and Dawn earlier at the cult. They had told her about how it had been for them back in Sunnydale, before the whole thing with the First. How they had been one large group. The Scoobies, they fought along side the Slayer, Buffy, and they were her friends and family. Xander even explained how he and Willow, a witch who was also Xander's best and oldest friend, had been fighting with Buffy since they were sixteen. 

Maybe Dawn, Xander, Faith, Oz, and Seth would become her family like the others Xander had told her about had become Buffy's. The family she had never had and always wanted. Already there seemed to be something forming, Dawn, Xander, Faith and Oz already knew each other well enough and she was sure Seth and herself would be able to fit in. 

Thinking about her conversation with Xander and Dawn the night before just went on to remind Aly what had happened after. The Vampires storming into the club, the fight, and Xander being dragged away by them. They had nearly lost Dawn too. Aly liked the guy well enough, and it would be a shame to lose him. After all, they were just starting to get to know each other. Aly's gaze fell upon Dawn then. The girl was only two years older than she was but like Aly herself, Dawn's experiences made her seem a lot older although, it seemed, other babied her too much. Aly sensed a connection between Xander and Dawn, something stronger than just friendship. Maybe it was the apparent magical connection between the two of them. 

Then again, what did she know? She was still only learning about all of this magic and supernatural garbage anyway. "Where do we stand now?" Aly asked, stepping out of the bathroom and into plain view. 

Dawn broke out of her trance reading the Journal long enough to glance at Aly. Her mouth dropped open. "You hair..." she pointed the journal in Aly's direction as the rest of the gang looked up to see what was up. 

"Looks good," Seth grinned, nodding his approvement. Already Aly liked this guy. Oz nodded quietly in agreement and Faith said nothing at all for a moment just watching her with a neutral expression. 

"Faith?" Aly raised an eyebrow. She wanted Faith's approvement. It was odd because she never cared what other people thought of her, but for some reason she cared what Faith thought. It was almost like Faith had become a sort of mother or sister to Aly since she had taken her into her apartment that night after the run-in with the Vampires in the cemetery.

"Guess you needed a change kid," Faith commented, "At least you didn't go and do something stupid to get it. You look good, older." 

"Thanks, I guess," Aly shrugged, joining Dawn on the floor, peaking over her shoulder to see what was happening in the journal at that moment. 

"So, you ready to help us research a bit?" Dawn asked quietly. She didn't sound upset that Aly hadn't been helping, it was just a question. Aly nodded and grabbed a book out of the box and sat back to read it, flipping the pages until she found something that was about Vampires. 

A knock at the door resonated through the apartment and Faith groaned, getting up and headed towards the door. "What now?" she muttered as she swung open the door to reveal a boy, around seventeen standing there with a nervous expression on his face. "Who're you?" Faith wondered. 

"Chris Taylor," the boy replied and at this name Dawn dropped the journal and leaned over a bit to see the boy's face. Aly frowned at Dawn's strange behavior and stood up to get a clear view of the door. 

"Right, and what is it you want?" Faith asked, bored of him already. 

"I'm looking for a Dawn Summers and Xander Harris," he explained, "I got news that they should be staying in this building with the Slayer, Faith." 

"What do you want with them?" Faith raised an eyebrow; she was on guard now. With all that was going on anyone who wanted anything to do with Dawn and Xander were enemies. 

"My Uncle was one of the monks that guarded the Key and the Lock," Chris mentioned, he was nervous and that was very evident, "Before he died he taught me a lot and I'm supposed to help them come to terms with their powers." Dawn stood up then, not getting a good view of the person at the door, even if she peered around the back of the couch. 

"It's you!" she exclaimed, finally seeing Chris' face. 

"You're Dawn _Summers_?" Chris looked bewildered just then as he started at Dawn, "I-I didn't think...I mean, I thought it was just a coincidence that your name was Dawn and that you used to live in Sunnydale..." 

"You know him?" Faith asked Dawn, slightly amused at this point. This guy couldn't be much of a threat, that much she had determined. Plus, there were two slayers and a Hunter, she still hadn't figured out what that means, to take him down if he tried anything.

"I met him in park," Dawn explained, "What do you know about the Key and the Lock?" 

"A lot," Chris told her, "Where's Xander Harris?" 

"Kidnapped," Dawn looked down, sadly, "By Vampires last night." 

"Shit," Chris muttered, "Desiree and Korl already got to him?" 

"Apparently," Seth mentioned from the couch, "From what Aly says the Journal says." 

"That's what that old book Dawn had was," Chris mused, "I thought it looked familiar..." 

"What can you tell us about them?" Oz wanted to know Faith smiled at Oz thanking him for asking the question she was sure no one else thought of in the heat of the moment. 

"That if they get their hands on Dawn we're doomed," Chris sighed, "What they can do with the power of the Lock and the Key no one wants to know. There's a reason that Xander and Dawn carry the powers. I'm supposed to teach them how to use them..." 

"Where can we find them?" Aly asked, "To get Xander back?" 

"No one knows for certain," Chris replied, "But they'll eventually go to the monestary to perform the ritual they need to get the power from Dawn and Xander. It's the only place they can do it." 

"What powers?" Dawn spoke again for the first time it what seemed like forever, "You said that Xander and I needed to learn how to use our powers." 

"It's a long story," Chris said, looking directly into her eyes, "One that I'd rather explain to both of you together. But the two of you have extraordinary powers, ones that you need to learn how to use and control." 

Just then, before could say anything more Faith's cell phone began to ring wildly. The room fell into complete silence as Faith reached over and grabbed it off the table. "Faith," she said into it as she answered and then, a second later she handed the phone to Dawn. 

"Hello?" Dawn said, uncertainly.

__

"Dawnie..." it was Angel. 

"Angel?" Dawn's smiled a little, "How'd you know I was in Boston?" 

__

"I got some information on your situation from the Firm," Angel explained, "I was surprised when I found out that you were in Boston, almost didn't believe what I was seeing…" 

"What did you see Angel?" Dawn asked. Something sounded off about Angel's tone and Dawn didn't know what to think about it.

__

"You and Xander dead." 


End file.
